There are a variety of companies shipping parts all over the world. Generally speaking automotive parts for assembly are shipped in bulk by rail, truck or by ship. After market parts in the automotive industry can be shipped in the same way, however there is a need for a faster and less expensive way of shipping one part at a time, either by courier or the like.
Vehicle or automotive parts also tend to wear out or need to be replaced following an accident. Such vehicle parts include doors, fenders, hoods, as well as trunks.
Since vehicle body parts are generally large or require substantial amount of storage space it is generally required that such vehicle parts are warehoused at the manufacturing site to be shipped to automotive body shops or the like when required. Accordingly, it is not unusual that such vehicle parts are shipped one at a time which raises the price of repairs.
Accordingly, it would be preferable if such vehicle parts such as a hood of a vehicle could be shipped in a package through a number of couriers including FedEx and Purolator.
However, because of the weight of the vehicle parts including the hood of an automobile, it is not unusual that such parts arrive at the desired destination with dents or the like due to the package being dropped or accidentally dented. Thus, there is a high percentage of vehicle hoods which arrive in a damaged condition and need to be repaired prior to usage.
Accordingly, there has been a need in prior art to develop an improved package and method of shipping vehicle parts. There have been various attempts to provide such packages. For example U.S. Pat. No. 7,665,280 teaches that plies of paperboard are laminated to form a paperboard laminate having a front and a back. An automobile part is placed on the front of the paperboard laminate leaving exposed the front of the paperboard laminate. The automobile part and the exposed paperboard laminate are shrink-wrapped with plastic shrink-wrap material. For automobile window glass, some of the front side plies of the paperboard laminate have been cut out to form a cavity in the configuration of the glass product being packaged. The glass product is disposed in the cavity and a glass product conforming reinforcing block is placed against the backside of the paperboard laminate during the shrink-wrap operation. For automobile fenders, hoods, the paperboard laminate need not be cut out and the sides of the paperboard laminate are folded upwardly to form a carton bottom to which a lid is affixed for shipping.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,465 teaches a protective package for an automobile part by providing a carton, side rail supports in the carton to receive the part and padded supports to secure the part in the carton.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,378 relates to a device for storing and transporting flat, substantially two dimensional objects where the device comprises a frame in which pouches with substantially u-shaped cross-sections are suspended and into each of which a corresponding object can be inserted.
Furthermore, there have been various activities utilizing materials to reinforce packaging particularly when the package is comprised of corrugated paperboard. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,061 relates to a pallet which includes a number of runners which are sandwiched between upper and lower face sheets of corrugated paperboard. Each runner is comprised of multiple layers of corrugated paperboard which the flutes of the corrugations oriented vertically to provide compression strength to the runners and the associated pallet. Each runner also includes at least one reinforcing insert most preferably of hardwood to provide beam strength to the runner.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved package for protecting parts during shipment and in particular to provide an improved package for protecting vehicle hoods during shipment and the method relating to same.
It is an aspect of this invention to provide a container for a part having a protrusion comprising: a paperboard container having an end; fiberboard disposed at said end of said container; said fiberboard having a hole therein for receiving the protrusion of the part. In one embodiment the container comprises corrugated paperboard and the part comprises a hood having a protruding latch striker.
It is another aspect of this invention to provide a package for a vehicle hood having a protruding latch striker comprising: a corrugated paperboard bottom having spaced front, back and side walls; a block disposed on said bottom adjacent to the front wall; fiberboard connected to said block, said fiberboard having a hole therein for engagement with the protruding latch striker when the hood is placed in the bottom; a lid engageable with the walls. In one embodiment the invention presents a block having a bottom section and a top section where the top section presents the fiberboard having the hole. In another embodiment the bottom section of the block comprises a plurality of laminated corrugated paperboard adhesively stacked to one another and the top section comprises a plurality of laminated fiberboard adhesively stacked to one another; such stacked laminated fiberboard adhesively connected to the laminated corrugated paperboard and wherein the holes of the laminated stacked fiberboard are aligned.
Yet another aspect of this invention relates to a method of packaging a vehicle hood having a protruding latch striker comprising the steps of: placing at least one piece of fiberboard having a hole therein into the package; inserting the vehicle hood into the package with the protruding latch striker engaging the hole of the fiberboard; placing a lid on the package.
These and other objects and features shall now be described in relation to the following drawings.